Food and energy

Over the next three days, I will try to eat the way a large part of humanity does: with a bowl of rice per day (in the morning I mogle with some porridge because I don't like rice so early). I'm curious to see how that feels. I'm familiar with fasting properly (i.e. not eating anything solid). Eating very little and only very one-sidedly is, I think, much more difficult.

The question of nutrition is very much on my mind. A few days ago I was talking to someone on the train who told me that in Germany 50% of usable agricultural land is now used to produce meat - either as pasture or to grow animal feed. Because of the increase in meat consumption - a third !!! of the world's grain harvest is now fed to animals that are subsequently eaten by humans. I once heard an estimate that factory farming is responsible for about 20% of global CO2 emissions. Partly because of the energy used to keep and transport the animals. But to a large extent also because of the CO2 that animals emit - to put it bluntly, "Cattle fart CO2 into the atmosphere. Lots of it."

If everyone in industrialised nations gave up half of their meat consumption, there would be millions of tonnes of grain and other plants left over to feed people. I like eating meat, but I have no desire to become a complete vegetarian. But I would like to play my part in the energy transition and in feeding people. That's why I've decided to give up meat from factory farming and eat meat at most once a week. That worked in the past - the famous Sunday roast - why not now?

Reading tips: Article from the Berliner Zeitung and impulse booklet Environmentally friendly. Impulses to preserve our world.